A NURSE who gave tragic toddler Jake McGeough a fatal dose of drugs was told by a doctor that he did not need an injection, an inquest was told.

Jake, of Leicester Road, Whitebirk, Blackburn, was 18 months old when he stopped breathing after the nurse gave him the muscle-relaxing drug vecuronium instead of a sedative prior to a scan.

He was resuscitated but died two days later, on July 8, 2001, in Liverpool's Alder Hey Hospital. He had been transferred after initially being taken to Queen's Park, Hospital, Blackburn, and medical staff feared he had been suffering from a metabolic disorder.

On the second day of the inquest into his death, Liverpool Coroner's Court was told by paediatric registrar Dr Malcolm Semple that he had informed nurse Rose Aru -- who had given Jake the drug -- that the boy did not require sedation.

Dr Semple, who was responsible for Jake and five other patients on the ICU ward, said he would have been on hand to offer sedation if it had been needed. And he said he would not have been a decision that was taken lightly because Jake was already in a stable condition, he would have to be starved beforehand and Dr Semple would have had to have left the ICU ward to attend to him.

Dr Semple said he believed that Jake was to be escorted to the scan room by Nurse Aru alone and that he did not have any concerns about that. The hearing was told that Jake was taken for his scan at about 4pm on the Friday but Dr Semple did not hear anything more until his bleeper went off around 50 minutes later.

Dr Semple said: "I asked Rose what drugs she had given Jake. She said she had given vecuronium. I asked her if she was sure that she had given him vecuronium and not the sedative and she said 'yes'." Nursing Sister Sally Rigby, who also worked on the ICU, told the hearing she had originally been designated as transport nurse for Jake and had prepared three syringes of drugs -- Midazolam, a sedative, saline and the vecuronium.

She said the syringes were clearly labelled and signed with her name and that of Jake's nurse, Rose Aru.

She said: "The drugs were not specifically prescribed for Jake but were ready should an emergency situation arise."

Shortly afterwards Sister Rigby was asked to attend on the transfer of a poorly child from a hospital in Wrexham and asked another member of the department to assist Nurse Aru.

Sister Rigby said it was normal practice for Jake, who was a high dependency patient, to be accompanied by a doctor for the scan and that if she had known Jake was not being accompanied by a doctor she would not have drawn up the drugs.

She said: "I was horrified that the drugs I had drawn to be given in the presence of a doctor, had been given with no prescription and without a doctor being present."

Two members of staff have been disciplined as a result of the death.

The inquest also heard from Sister Jill Cochrane, who was responsible for the allocation of staff to patients on the ward.

She said she had worked on the ward with Nurse Aru for six years and that she was capable of moving a patient such as Jake. She also said she asked Nurse Lynne Macguire who was on the ward as part of her orientation to accompany Nurse Aru.

She said: Nurse Aru she telephoned the ward and Sister Cochrane asked her if she had everything she needed. Sister Cochrane was later called down to the scan department to respond to the cardiac arrest. When asked by the coroner whether a nurse should give an IV without a prescription from a doctor, she said: "A nurse should never give an IV sedative without a prescription. It's a corner I consider can never be cut."

(Proceeding)